1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates in general to satellite communication and, in particular, to a method and apparatus to obtain satellite beam information at a given geographical location.
2. Discussion of the Background
In order to provide broadband connectivity at a geographical location, it may be necessary for a remote apparatus such as a mobile satellite communication device or remote apparatus to obtain certain communication parameters, including satellite beam receive quality and transmit gain information corresponding to the geographical location. The communication parameters may be used to select a beam when more than one beam is available. The communication parameters may be stored in a geographical map that occupies a significant amount of memory. In a conventional system, the geographical map may be stored at a central location, such as at a hub, and served in small pieces to the remote apparatus. Portions of map data may be periodically fetched by the remote apparatus over the air as needed. The conventional in memory data structures used to contain information read from the map may use undesirably large amounts of memory.